Detergent compositions have traditionally contained a number of non-active ingredients. This has resulted in the increase in volume of the compositions and thus the packaging therefore. It is now considered highly desirable to reduce the volume of detergent compositions due to environmental considerations and produce more compact detergent formulations. One means to achieve this is to reduce the amount of non active ingredients such as water in detergent compositions. Reducing and preferably removing non active ingredients, particularly water results in a more compact composition. This in turn results in the need for less packaging material and smaller more manageable containers.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to formulate non-aqueous detergent compositions which exhibit at least the same cleaning performance of an equivalent aqueous detergent composition.
In order to achieve the required cleaning performance, it is desirable to incorporate surfactants comprising 2 vicinal hydroxyl groups selected from poly hydroxy fatty acid amides, alkyl mono or di(alkoxy) glyceryl ethers, alkane 1,2-diols, alkyl glycerates and N-alkyl-lactobionamides. This is because such surfactants are especially effective with respect to their greasy stain removal performance.
Unfortunately, it has been found that said surfactants comprising 2 vicinal hydroxyl groups are not soluble in non-aqueous compositions and form precipitates.
Thus, it is a further object of the present invention to incorporate these surfactants comprising 2 vicinal hydroxyl groups in non-aqueous compositions without the precipitation of the surfactant in the composition.
In response to this object it has now been found that these surfactants comprising 2 vicinal hydroxyl groups can indeed be solubilized in non-aqueous detergent compositions. This is achieved by the addition of a boron comprising compound such as boric acid.
Without wanting to be bound by theory it is believed that the boron comprising compound interacts with the hydroxyl groups of the surfactant to form complexes. These complexes disrupt the crystallinity of the surfactant and thereby prevent its precipitation.
Another advantage of the present invention is that certain ingredients such as dye transfer inhibition systems which are not compatible with an aqueous environment can be incorporated into non-aqueous liquid detergent compositions. This contributes to overall cleaning performance of liquid detergent compositions.